How Australia's Frank Body Built A $20 Million Global Beauty Brand On Social Media

Forbes 30 under 30 alum Jess Hatzis is co-founder and creative director of frank body, an Australian-based beauty brand that has gained traction in the natural beauty sector through its cheeky social media campaigns. Since launching, Frank Body has sold 2.2 million of its signature coffee ground-based body scrubs and has grown an international presence, shipping product to over 149 countries.

Models using frank body's signature body coffee scrub

“We really saw an opportunity to launch a great product through social media, with smaller barriers to entry than ever before,” Jess Hatzis said. “We wanted to create an amazing product and a brand that cut through the jargon dominating the beauty industry at the time. To speak truthfully, however, it began as a side project between friends. We were ambitious, but I don't think any of us could have imagined where the brand would grow to.”

Jess Hatzis is co-founder and creative director of frank body

Frank Body launched with just one product, the original body scrub, and then they began adding to their collection as their first product took off.

“We launched our second product, the Coconut Coffee Scrub, 6 months after launching,” Hatzis said. “Our first non-scrub product was released about a year after launch. We still have a very tight sku range as we aim to create only the best, natural products we can. Start less, finish more - that's our motto.”

The co-founders originally funded Frank Body with less than $10,000, and last year, the company did over $20 million in brand sales.

frank body's original introduction kit

“To launch, it took blood, sweat and tears, let’s be frank,” Hatzis said. “We launched with a very humble budget. We handmade our product to start and would produce each item after orders came in, to manage cash flow as we grew.”

The team behind Frank Body launched their company entirely through their social media channels, relying on Instagram and Facebook to grow their business.

“We wouldn't have the business we have today had it not been for our ability to leverage platforms like Instagram and Facebook,” Hatzis said. “We created a bold brand persona that resonated with consumers and to this day it is still the largest referrer of traffic to our website. We spend a lot of time developing content that our consumers want to see, but more importantly, we had a very deliberate UGC strategy from day 1 - and we now have over 100,000 consumer generated images living under our hashtags #letsbefrank and #thefrankeffect.”

frank body coffee scrub in action

Frank Body has a very cheeky and unique voice, which carries over into every aspect of branding the company.

“At the time, many beauty brands had fallen into a rut,” Hatzis said. “There was a lot of corporate language being used and lots of scientific jargon that was confusing consumers. We wanted to be the antithesis of that. We needed to be humble, honest and frank about our product and a variety of topics. So that led us to create the character of 'frank' in order to engage in a relatable, direct dialogue with our potential customers and we were prudent on carrying that voice through every touch point of our brand. It made us stand out in an otherwise cookie cutter industry.”

While Frank Body was initially entirely direct-to-consumer, the company has transitioned into to opening to brick-and-mortar retail channels.

frank body's full range of products

“It was an undertaking we spent a lot of time deliberating, due to the complexity it would add to our business,” Hatzis said. “But we knew in order to reach a certain demographic of consumers, we needed a brick-and-mortar presence. We chose to partner with brand-led retailers that have very well curated beauty offerings - destinations where people go to discover great brands. Both Mecca in Australia and Urban Outfitters here in the United States have been incredibly supportive in terms of helping maintain the brand voice in store.”

“I think both groups are quite savvy,” Hatzis said. “They research brands and ingredients, they want cruelty-free products that don't contain toxic synthetics. Simply, they spend time getting to know what they are about to spend their money on.”

frank body's original coffee scrub

Frank Body has managed to keep high ingredient standards within the natural beauty space while scaling the business by taking time to perfect their products.

“We manufacture all of our products in Australia and spend up to 18 months developing certain formulas, selecting only natural and naturally derived ingredients,” Hatzis said. “We have a great manufacturing partner and the full HQ team vet all new products to ensure we only release the best to market. If it means we release things slower than desired, so be it.”

Frank Body has plans to continue to scale their business in the year to come.

“We are looking to create larger retail footprint here in the US and really sinking our teeth into this region as a whole,” Hatzis said.